YouTube Gaming Launches Today With Android & iPhone Apps

Video sharing giant YouTube is finally taking on Amazon’s Twitch with its very own live streaming service for games. The website launches today along with apps for the Android & iOS mobile platforms. The service will see a worldwide launch while the mobile apps, as announced by the YouTube team in June, will initially only be available in the UK and US.

In preparation for the release, YouTube has spruced up its live streaming service with the option to immediately broadcast to a single URL without having to schedule an event. Live streams created this way will be public; users will still be able to stream private sessions with the Events feature. Currently in beta, the new offering can be availed at youtube.com/stream.

As the description on the official blog post goes, the service will be a hub for gamers looking to watch videos of their favorite games and casters using all of YouTube’s existing features and services. Following Twitch’s example, the site will organize YouTube videos by games, gaming-centric categories (eSports, machinima, etc.) as well as gamer/publisher channels with live streams taking center stage, and will filter out non-gaming suggestions and results when you’re searching for videos.

As expected, you’ll be able to subscribe to channels to get notifications for live streams and add individual games to your account to always have your favorite content a couple clicks away.

The “coming soon” page for the website has been up for a while now, complete with an interactive logo that pays homage to Starcraft, Metal Gear Solid, Sonic and other iconic video game franchises. If you haven’t signed up for a launch notification yet, do it now to receive an email as soon as YouTube Gaming is up and running.

While the site itself is a few hours away from launch, the Android app seems to have rolled out onto the Play Store, most likely due to its APK leaking into the wild in the beginning of August. You can downloaded the app to your phone or tablet right now. For those of you who don’t have an Android device and would like a taste of what’s in store, here’s a video demo:

You can download the iOS version of the app from the link below when it rolls out.

I'm an engineer, blogger, and graphic designer who loves creating and experimenting with different forms of online content when he's not looking for a mix of inspiration and escape in PC gaming, comic books and anime. You can find me on Twitter and Google+.